The topic "Cultural developments during the Lower, Middle and Upper Paleolithic" is far too broad but can be narrowed by focusing on a particular aspect. Brainstorm possible specific topics or read an article about the Paleolithic that answers some of the following questions pertaining to this very broad topic
Who: e.g. Australopithicines, hunters, Homo habilis, neanderthals, etc.
What: e.g. bone tools, caving painting(s), hand axes, diet, meat/hunting/trapping, music, burials, fire, cognitive/cognition, Venus figurines, etc.
Where: e.g. Africa, Asia, India, Near East, Europe, Germany, Swabia
When: many relevant articles will not be indexed with terms specifying Upper, Middle or Lower Paleolithic. Just use "Paleolithic" or, depending on your topic, a more specific term pertaining to the particular period of your focus, e.g. Aurignacian
Why: disappearance/extinction of Neandertals
Note any alternate terms, synonyms, broader or narrower terms that describe your topic and any variations in the spelling of your terms to use when searching, including different word endings.
Search tips: Use
wildcards for alternate word endings:
neandert* (in the journal databases) instead of neanderthal(s) or neandertal(s)
"hand axe*" or "handaxe*" or axe*
Concept 1 | Concept 2 | Concept 3 |
paleolithic | art | Africa |
"cave painting" | Namibia | |
ochre | Apollo 11 cave | |
rock art |
Use a wildcard * to indicate you don't care what letters follow
Enclose phrases in quotation marks for more precise results, e.g. "stone tool*"
Academic/Scholarly/Peer-reviewed
|
Popular
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You can identify an academic article by:
Use the Advanced search option or combine the keywords for each concept in a search statement using "and" between different concepts and "or" between terms in the same concept.
If you are doing a Basic search, enclose the alternate keywords in brackets.
Remember to use the * as a wildcard to allow for alternate word endings and spellings, e.g.
paleolithic and music*
australopith* and (paranthropus or boisei or aethiopicus or robust*)
(dominan* or rank* or subordinat* or hierarch*) and "rhesus monkey*" and (male* or female* or gender)
Finding too much?
Finding too little?
For better searching, think of multiple ways to describe your topic
Citation is stating where you got your information.
The reasons you cite:
You need to cite: